Testimony of Teresa

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One of the guests at Vicka and Mario's wedding, Teresa from Sicily (62 years old) had this to share with us:

"I am the twelfth of 14 children. My father used to curse God and beat my mother and us children. We were often hungry and had to sleep 3 to a bed. When I was 9 years old, I received the call to become a nun, but my father would not allow it because he wanted me to work in order to help the family. Later I got married and became lukewarm in my faith. My husband didn’t believe much, but we went to Mass on Sundays."

"In 1998, I had to have an hysterectomy due to cancer of the uterus, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. A few months later: breast cancer, another operation, followed by radiation. Then my husband became very ill and I had to take care of him, until his death two years ago. Completely exhausted, I had to have further tests. This time, I was diagnosed with liver cancer. My whole body was suffering and I was vomiting constantly. I decided to go on a retreat at San Giovanni Rotondo, in the former parish of Padre Pio, to put my life in order for the months that I had left to live. I was suffocating under so many hardships. The doctors wanted to do a third operation, and I had to make a decision."

"The first night at San Giovanni, June 21, 2000, I had a strange experience, which I thought was a dream, but I wasn’t sure. I found myself in the waiting room at the hospital, waiting my turn to be called for the operation. The door opened and a young woman entered. It was a nurse wearing a white uniform. She had her brown hair in a pony tail. She came straight towards me saying, 'You can leave now, you’re cured'. Shocked and surprised, I stuttered that I couldn’t leave because I had come to have an operation. She repeated: 'Yes! You can leave, you’ve been cured.' Again, I told her: 'There must be a mistake, because I’m scheduled to have an operation.' Then with an authoritative voice, she told me: 'But I’ve told you that you are cured !'"

"The next morning, this 'experience' still had hold of me. I spoke about it to a priest who told me: 'We’ll see with time if it’s true or not. Meanwhile, you yourself have to make the choice to have the operation or not.' I decided to not have the operation. In fact, during that same night the pain had completely disappeared. I was able to start eating normally again, I gained weight, I was able to sleep, to walk, just like someone in good health. An enormous strength had come into my whole body. And I forgot to say that my first thought upon awakening from the dream was Medjugorje : 'I must go to Medjugorje!' I was seized with an intense desire to go there, and yet I didn’t really know anything about Medjugorje: a small isolated village in Bosnia-Herzegovina, some apparitions to young shepherds... That’s all I knew! The retreat at San Giovanni Rotondo was a time of resurrection for me, and I decided to change my life, to put God in the first place. After the retreat I looked for a means to go to Medjugorje, and finally in Sicily, I found a pilgrimage organized for New Year’s. I was also invited to participate in a prayer group on Thursday evenings to meditate on the messages from the Queen of Peace. Each message went straight to my heart and filled me more and more with joy."

"Once I arrived in Medjugorje, I was impressed by the grace of the site, even on the first day while praying the Stations of the Cross on Mount Krizevac. The next day we went to listen to Vicka. When I saw her, I said to myself, 'I’ve already seen her face somewhere, but where?'"

"Then it came back to me in a flash, the scene of the night at San Giovanni and I exclaimed, 'It’s her! That’s the young woman in white who came to tell me, 'you can leave, you are cured!' I was amazed and I looked at the light radiating from her eyes, the rays of love coming from her face. Later I had the opportunity to tell her about that night when she came to visit me, and she only said to me, smiling: 'Thanks be to God !'"

"My life is now taken up with an apostolate in Sicily and prayer retreats in Medjugorje. I know that the Gospa has a plan for me through the healing and the freedom that was given to me. My joy is to be her instrument for whatever she has in store for me."

This is only the beginning of Teresa’s witness, this simple, discreet woman, full of fire, who is now among the apostles of the Gospa. The intervention by Vicka in the depths of her distress shows that we don’t have to run after the visionaries, but rather be open to God and to let our life be changed. In order to help us, God actually has millions of angels, He never runs out of grace or imagination to help us or to visit us. Why did He choose Vicka for Teresa that night? We can’t answer that question, but fortunately we can give thanks!

 

For God to live in your hearts, you must love.

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